CPU suffixes and numbers & GHz

[64cents]

Alright so this has confused me for quite a while. My CPU is an intel i5, but it has a bunch of numbers and letters followed up by it. Mine is i5- 4210U CPU @ 1.70GHz 2.40 GHz.

I know that the "4" stands for 4th gen, and the "U" for ultra low battery life, but the "210" and "2 1.70GHZ 2.40GHz" confuses me. I'm a newbie to computer specs, so please bear with me. Thanks

 

[turkey3_scratch]

210 is just what it is... ask Intel why they call it that if you're curious, because I surely don't know.

1.7Ghz is the base frequency. 2.4Ghz is the turbo frequency. The "U" means it is low-power (which is good on laptop battery life but can hamper performance when high performance is needed, but 90% of laptops come with these "U" CPUs today and are wonderful for average everyday users.

 

[Ecky]

I don't think the 210 has any specific meaning, but it shows how it is relative to other CPUs. A 4200 would be lower clocked than yours, and a 4220 would be higher clocked. A hypothetical 4300 or 4400 might have more cache, as evidence by the i3 4350 having more cache than the i3 4150.

"U" on mobile CPUs denotes that it's a low power part, but also that it's a dual core. "Q" designates it's a quad core. "N" designates that it's an Atom and not a Core CPU, as in Celeron N3xxx vs Celeron 3xxxU.

 

[Snipergod87]

Its the model number 4210U as you stated 4 is 4th gen and U is the power saver model. 210 is just part of the model number it doesn't mean anything.

The 1.7Ghz and 2.4Ghz means 1.7Ghz is the base clock and if there is enough thermal head room it will boost up to 2.4 until it gets to hot or draws to much power the throttles back down.

 

[64cents]

I know there are 6 generations in total, but what does that mean, the higher the generation, better the performance..? And about the letter suffixes, each available letter is suitable for what type of CPU do I need for what will I use my pc for? I'm going for a low budget prebuilt laptop suitable for gaming, what CPU should I look for?

 

[turkey3_scratch]

Low budget prebuilt laptops usually aren't very suitable for gaming. Fine for League of Legends and CSGO but not like modern day games on powerful engines.

 

[Ecky]

I know there are 6 generations in total, but what does that mean, the higher the generation, better the performance..? And about the letter suffixes, each available letter is suitable for what type of CPU do I need for what will I use my pc for? I'm going for a low budget prebuilt laptop suitable for gaming, what CPU should I look for?

Each year, Intel redesigns their CPUs to be slightly faster and draw slightly less power.

This should be useful:

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/processor-numbers.html

 

[64cents]

I know there are 6 generations in total, but what does that mean, the higher the generation, better the performance..? And about the letter suffixes, each available letter is suitable for what type of CPU do I need for what will I use my pc for? I'm going for a low budget prebuilt laptop suitable for gaming, what CPU should I look for?

Each year, Intel redesigns their CPUs to be slightly faster and draw slightly less power.

This should be useful:

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/processor-numbers.html

What do those "Mobile" alpha suffixes indicate? Are they for actual mobile phones or something?

 

[Ecky]

"Mobile" refers to laptops. Desktop CPUs for the 6xxx generation have 35w (T), 54w/65w (normal) and 91w TDPs, while laptop CPUs have 3.5w, 5w, 15w, 25w, 35w and 45w TDPs.